Tanker Safety

There is much talk these days about the safety of transporting bitumen via tankers in the Douglas Channel and out into Hecate Straight. The proponentspimps of the project insist that technology is just wonderful and there will be the utmost care taken to avoid the unthinkable, a catastrophic spill on the pristine North Coast. I did a quick Google search using the searchwords “tanker sinks”. Oh boy! (Interestingly, I did not find any of these stories in the Canadian Media.)

Sharjah: An oil tanker, belonging to a UAE-based diesel company sank 500 metres from Al Hamriya Port, north west of Sharjah city, due to strong winds, a Coast Guard official told Gulf News.

All the five crew members were rescued, the official said.

Lady Moon, the tanker, sunk at around 6.15am on Sunday. According to the official, the tanker’s crew decided to anchor the ship off the coast due to strong winds.

“They dropped the anchor to wait till the wind slowed down. However, it got cut due to the impact of strong winds,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity…snip…”The captain told the port’s sea monitors at the control unit that the ship’s engines were struggling. Later, he told them he had lost control of the ship’s steering, and by then the vessel, loaded with diesel fuel cargo, had started sinking.” the official said.”

Several explosions occurred on a tanker ship being loaded with fuel at the Lingen-Holthausen refinery in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia late on Monday, police said. The vessel caught fire and sank. The fire brigade was able to get the blaze on the Ems River canal under control, in addition to preventing it from spreading to other nearby ships, police said. Super-grade fuel leaked out of the burning ship and also caught fire, which was also put out with a special foam. But the dangerous fuel-water combination created in the accident could still cause further fires or explosions, police said. The ship’s five crew members also managed to escape, though one suffered minor injuries.

3 comments to Tanker Safety

There was also, the oil spill in Nigeria. The spill in New Zea Land. Enbridge has another leak, into the Gulf. Enbridge had a 1,500 barrel spill, in Wrigley N.W.T. that leak was during, the fire in Slave Lake. There was of course, the Enbridge spill into the Kalamazoo River. Enbridge didn’t bother to clean up that disaster up either. A pipe burst some distance from Edmonton. This spill made the F.N. children so sick, they had to abandon their school. The F.N. clean drinking water was totally contaminated

The seas around Kitimat, are one of the most treacherous in the world. Every other day, there are high wind warning. There are hurricane force winds. Waves up to 40 and 50 feet high. Hairpin curves, for these dirty oil tankers to navigate. It is difficult to navigate in good weather, let alone in the wild storms. The channel is narrow with undersea rock ledges, the tankers are massive.

There is still oil gathering on the rocks, from the Valdez spill over 21 years ago. The immense China tankers would make the Valdez spill, look like a teacup spill.

Will Harper, China, Alberta and the Campbell/Clark BC Liberals care? Hell no, they are too stupid to care.